Flag Day: What Really Do We Celebrate?

Ever since its first hoisting on April 26, 1847, the resplendent red, blue and white Liberian Flag, the Lone Star, has been the topic of inconclusive debates. Like the nation for which it stands, the red, white and blue ensign has aroused controversies about who were its designer, where was it sown and whether its symmetric resemblance to the Star Spangled Banner, the United States Flag, distorts the symbolism of ‘liberty, freedom and justice for all’ that the founders of the First Black Republic in Africa proudly espoused. Decades ago, the story was told and dramatized at elementary and high schools throughout Liberia that the Lone Star banner was the original work of Susana Lewis, Matilda Newport and Sarah Draper, among other pioneers, known as the Seven Seamstresses.

History holds as truth that seven women were commissioned by the political leaders to develop a befitting flag for the new Republic, whose independence they intended to declare in July 1847. However, dedicated researchers have found out that the original flag was made at the home of Olivia Phelps-Stokes in Virginia, in the United States. Among the researchers, who held this view was Counselor Lancelot Phelps. Anyone who visited his Benson Street residence in the 1980s would have seen an imposing plaque displayed in the main sitting room; and if the visitor failed to notice the inscription on the brownish plaque in a golden frame, which claimed that the Lone Star was made in Phelps Stokes, Virginia, the teacher-counselor would have surely found a way of updating your knowledge with a tinge of boastfulness that his forebears made the original Lone Star Flag. Of course, the attempt to rewrite history and thereby upset the status quo is often unpleasant. Yet, there is no denying that history is history no matter how unpleasant. That the United States was involved in the founding of Liberia is an incontrovertible fact. Perhaps, it is this realization that has helped the Liberian nation and the Flag to survive for 168 years. This is not to say that there have not been significant attempts to change Liberia’s national ensigns – the Flag, the Coat of Arm and even the National Anthem - to reflect a wholesome nationhood and to demystify the treacherous schisms between the settlers and the aborigines. As far back as the mid-Twentieth Century, there were uprisings fuelled by the National Seal which read: “The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here”. In the eyes of the protesters, this motto exclusively referred to the prowess of the settlers. To counter this aberration, some historians have claimed that the motto is about every Liberian, since every Liberian ethnic group came from somewhere and settled here in the Grain Coast. The 2015 Independence Day orator made similar analogy. In the 1980s, especially after the 1980 coup, the argument over the national identity extended to the Lone Star. Those who were uncomfortable with the National Flag, because its historic descriptions celebrated the settlers or pioneers and precluded the indigenes from the operational concepts behind the design of the Flag, pushed for a replacement of the Lone Star with an all-embracing new flag. However, the proponents of the Flag replacement were stuck with the prohibitive cost of changing history. Now that the Lone Star has shined over hills and seas for more than a hundred years, and has become synonymous with Liberia on the international stage, could it be lowered and/or discarded without consequences? It seemed as if the above didn’t matter when the quarrel over the National Ensigns resurfaced again in 2013. As a result of persistent debates on the radio airwaves, the Secretariat of the National Conference on the Transformation Agenda (Vision 2030) adopted an agenda featuring the re-write of the History of Liberia with a view to expunging accounts that provoked divisiveness. One of the believers in this approach subsequently wrote an article in the official government newspaper, The New Liberia, titled ‘Soft Issues… for consideration’. In summary, the writer suggested that matters such as the flag and other national ensigns should be dealt with speedily because these were soft issues as compared to hard reforms requiring constitutional amendments. This proposition was buttressed by the Chairman of the Liberian History Review Committee, Dr. Elwood Dunn. However, two years after, neither the National Ensigns nor the History of Liberia has been revised. Perhaps what was then considered as “Soft Issues” at the then Gbarnga National Conference were not soft at all. In recent times, the Flag song, “The Lone Star Forever” seems to rival with the Liberia National Anthem. Almost at every calendar event, especially National Holidays, “The Lone Star Forever” and “The National Anthem” are songs with equal gusto. The trend reminds one of the good old days when the Flag was venerated on August 24th, during the celebration of Flag Day. It was customary then to mark the occasion with parades throughout the length and breadth of the country. Students and militia brigades, comprising high school units, were compelled to participate in military drills, rain or shine. Those who failed to perform this national duty risked arrest. Lest the reverence for the Flag appear to be arbitrary, it is apt to remind all that it is enshrined in the Liberian Code of Laws (1956) that it shall be unlawful for any person to sit or move about or for any person except a female or one in active service [duty] in full view of the Flag or struck at official stations with ceremony or at military posts. For the benefit of those who do not know, while the National Flag is being carried in processions, it shall also be unlawful for a person in full view or along the same route to remain seated when not in a vehicle, or to pass by the Flag, or except in the case of a female or a person in active military or naval service or during inclement weather, to remain with head covered. All persons except females along the route of the procession shall halt and stand at attention till the Flag shall have passed. Violation attracts penalties. Any person violating the provisions above shall be arrested and taken to the nearest stipendiary magistrate, who shall penalize the offender for breach of peace. Unfortunately, nowadays the Flag is often dishonored because of the penchant of all and sundry to fly it on their vehicles, and hoist it in front of their offices from sun rise to sun set. Take a glance around, you will see weather beaten or tattered National Flag in the foreground of public as well as private buildings. This was not the case in the golden past. Only VIPs flew the Flag on their vehicles. Every dawn, at 6 a.m. prompt, the Lone Star would be hoisted; and in the evening at 6 pm, it would be lowered, except when flown at half-mast by order. Let those who know, tell the rest of us if the laws have changed; and if so, whether they have changed for better or the worse?